


not all of them deserve you (and yet you love them all the same)

by vindice



Series: forget all the shooting stars and all the silver moons [8]
Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Devotion, Heartache, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-07 02:40:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18864061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vindice/pseuds/vindice
Summary: I love you I love you I love you.





	not all of them deserve you (and yet you love them all the same)

**Author's Note:**

> With the prompt “I love you.”

_I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, holding back a yawn as much as his small body will allow him. He’s four and warm and content, wrapped in his mama’s embrace. It always makes him feel safe and sound, and right now he’s tired, about to drift off to sleep. He likes mama’s hugs the best, they’re the gentlest in the whole world.

 _I loved you,_ Tsuna thinks, confusion clouding his mind, hurt spreading through his cells and reflecting on his face. Papa’s boss stopped touching his forehead a few moments ago and he feels himself tilting forward, can’t help but want to flinch as the feeling he only gets when he’s falling in dreams takes ahold of him, panic seizing in his chest. He’s five when his dad catches him before he reaches the ground, and, for the better, he is out before he can know anything else. 

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, choking on his unshed tears, throat constricted around an invisible lump. He is thirteen when Mukuro stabs him in the stomach and yet the pain he feels is not his own but that of a little child tied to a chair, pinned to the ground, sedated in a bed. He feels Mukuro’s lament as an extension of himself, their hearts aligning for a moment as he watches through eyes that aren’t his the torment of a child who’s been backstabbed by his own blood. He sees him lose his innocence over and over and over again until he has it no more. Tsuna understands better than anyone else and he can tell Mukuro knows, has felt it in bones that aren’t his, bones that are too cold, too hollow. Tsuna knows about betrayal too, and maybe all he can do right now is helplessly watch as they bind him in chains, but he’ll be damned if he betrays Mukuro as well.

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, eyes a little wide and heart a little heavy. He catches his breath midair and watches Xanxus stand there, frozen in time. He didn’t mean to ice him, didn’t even know he could. It rubs Tsuna in all the wrong places, makes his chest tighten in ways too complex for him to understand. There’s a vision in the edge of his sight, an echo of a long forgotten memory. A child who felt safe in the arms of those who were supposed to protect him, trusted all the wrong people. He is thirteen when he feels guilty relief wash over him as the Varia melts Xanxus’ blood imposed cage, freeing him of a sin no one should ever be condemned with.

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, holding on to the ring he didn’t want a few weeks ago, heart fluttering and feeling light like he hasn’t in a long while. Giotto looks at him with gentle, serious eyes, the fondness in his tone clear as light even if he doesn’t quite smile, and it’s obvious even to someone like him, someone who hasn’t had much experience to be able to recognize it. The  cruelty he’s grown accustomed to is lacking, nowhere to be found in the endless support shining in his ancestor’s irises. He’s fourteen when he feels warm for the first time in years, the phantom ache around his joints a ghost of it, his mind a clutter of water drops as he drifts peacefully, let’s himself be pulled to Giotto’s side like the moon gravitates towards the earth. 

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, staring down at Natsu and caressing his mane. He lets out a jaw-cracking yawn, his body aching and belly full of meal, hidden in one of the many secret passages the fortress has. Lal’s training is harsh but at least he no longer feels like he can’t breathe by the end of the day, and that’s an improvement, compared to the first day he started her regimen. He is fourteen when his Flames dance, reaching out for Natsu sprawled on his chest. The world’s in shambles and the future uncertain, but Tsuna dozes off to purring, feeling the vibrations right over his heart, thinking for a moment everything is alright.

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, trapped in a sphere, adrenaline fueling him. He’s furious in a way he never thought he could be, his tongue a sharp sword intent to stab. Byakuran grins a cruel smirk and Yuni is snatched before anyone can react, pulled into the Sky shield right alongside them.  He wants to ask but he has no time to wonder why she’s let herself be caught. He already knows the answer. Tsuna is fourteen when his soul resonates with two other halves, filling him up and making him complete for the first time in a lifetime. He has to swallow the mournful keen crawling up his throat after he rips off Byakuran’s wings, when the emptiness in his core where two other people used to be threatens to swallow him whole. It is a great relief when he passes out, welcoming unconsciousness with open arms, fate being merciful for once.

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, looking at the figure a few feet in front of him. He’s fourteen when he finally finds a name for this, his will to live, his _pride,_ and he won’t let it be ripped away from him. Chrome is waiting, and he’s almost there. He’ll bring her home, wrap her in his arms, wash away the worry flooding Mukuro’s system and dripping into Tsuna’s bloodstream. She is _theirs_ and whoever took her is going to regret it. Enma needs him too, he’s in pain, and Tsuna won’t allow that to continue. He’s going to pull him out of a black hole, limb by limb, build him back together piece by piece and breathe life into his lungs if he has to.

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, standing amidst his once sworn enemies, his family. If Reborn won’t ask for help then it just means Tsuna has to shove it in his face the way he’s learnt from him. He’s fourteen when he grits his teeth spitting on the ground and closing his fists around heaps of soil before getting up, split lip bruised ribs and broken bones glued with the determination singing in his veins, intent on showing the universe what he’s capable of doing for the man he cherishes the most. He’s going to dig and dig and dig and rip open his ribcage, make a safe haven out of it to protect him. Tsuna’s going to fight the world and die trying if it means he gets to keep him.

 _I love you,_ Tsuna thinks, right under a sunset on the rooftop of a hospital. “I think I’m happy,” Reborn says, and he feels the air rush out of his lungs. “Tsuna. Thanks to you… I can still live.” Reborn says, and Tsuna thinks, _I love you,_ and he also thinks that maybe one day, he’ll be ready, he’ll be okay enough to say it out loud.

**Author's Note:**

> Who doesn’t deserve you: your father. It’s always your father.


End file.
